Cloud storage providers – unbiased, honest reviews

What can you do to protect your important files?

Many of us have lots of valuable data stored on one of our electronic devices whether that be a phone, a tablet, a laptop, Mac or PC. These can vary from holiday snaps to CV’s and work documents. Whether you work from home or just like to keep all of your important documents in one place it is always wise to back everything up.

What could go wrong?

We could probably list a whole page of things that could go wrong to compromise your data but here are the most common ones.

1. Your laptop gets a virus that wipes your hard drive or destroys all of your files. Failing that it may be stopping you from getting access to your files. What do you do? Well, you could pay to have your data retrieved by an IT specialist but this is expensive and not always possible.

2. You lose your mobile. Unfortunately, this is so common for most of us. How many times do you see people on social media advertising a phone that they have found with valuable pics on or see posts from people asking if anyone has seen their phone?

3. You drop your phone down the toilet. This is another common Facebook update. “I dropped my phone down the loo, how do I dry it out?” You could pop it in a bag of rice in the airing cupboard but again it is very much down to luck as to whether all your files are safe.

4. You damage your devices – whether someone spills a drink, drops your phone or causes other extensive damage to one of your gadgets the chances are you will ruin the device beyond repair and lose your important files.

By now you get the picture right? When you lose a device much of the time we aren’t so concerned about the device itself as that can be replaced but what can’t be replaced are our memories. The wedding pictures, the baby’s first steps videos, the birthday selfies and the documents you had saved on your phone are all things that can’t be replaced and it can be devastating to lose that information.

What can you do to protect your important files?

If you haven’t got a storage solution then get one. Don’t risk this happening to you and losing so many memories and important documents. Get online and check out the many cloud storage providers that offer plans for personal storage. You may not need lots of storage. Sites like Dropbox, Box, Sync to mention a few have a storage plan available that are free for a certain amount of data. With Box, for example, you get up to 10GB free. There are restrictions and pros and cons to each provider but by taking a little time to shop around you will soon find the best solution for your needs.

Find a provider and open an account

Once you have found a provider and created an account then you need to start uploading your data. It should happen automatically either on your device or your computer. Once you have done this you can then install the software or app on each of your devices so that your data is backed up and accessible from any device. That’s another benefit to cloud storage – once it is in the cloud you can access it from anywhere with your log in details and with the right provider you can access and work offline. You could have all of your photos on your phone, tablet and computer.

What happens if something goes wrong in the cloud?

The beauty of the cloud is that as a network of servers your information tends to be stored on multiple servers. If something should go wrong with one of their servers then your data is still there on other servers. Your data is protected by data encryption as well so you don’t have to worry about it being visible to others. Many of the reputable cloud storage providers use the same secure encryption as banks, financial institutes and the military so your data is encrypted in transit and whilst it is in the cloud.